ED arrests Maltese citizen in Moser Baer loan fraud case
Directorate of Enforcement (ED) on 22 August 2023 arrested Nitin Bhatnagar, a Maltese Citizen, for his involvement in the offence of Money Laundering in a case of Moser Baer India Ltd. and others, under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002.
Nitin Bhatnagar was produced before the Rouse Avenue Court in New Delhi on the day of arrest. The Court has granted ED custody till 31 August 2023.
ED initiated investigation against Moser Baer India Ltd and others under the provisions of PMLA, 2002 on the basis of FIR dated 17 August 2019 registered by CBI under various sections of IPC and Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.
The account of Moser Baer India was declared as fraud by the complainant bank on 20 April 2019. The promoters of the company — Ratul Puri and his family members – was accused of siphoned off of loan provided by the banks for the company.
Moser Baer underwent insolvency proceedings and was liquidated by an order of NCLT in September 2019.
According to ED investigation, Nitin Bhatnagar helped in opening of a bank account in April 2011 in the name of Pristine River Investments Limited in the Bank of Singapore. Pristine River Investments Limited was fully owned by the Savannah Trust. Ratul Puri was the settler of the Savannah Trust.
ED investigation revealed that Pristine River Investments received the proceeds of crime amounting to $14.18 million from UHY Saxena, Mercon Commodities and Midas Metals International, entities that were managed and controlled by Rajiv Saxena, who is a hawala operator and an accommodation entry provider who runs an accommodation entry business in Dubai, who has laundered proceeds of crime for Moser Baer India.
Saxena has created structures for laundering the proceeds of crime generated by Ratul Puri and his family members.
The account of Pristine River Investments has been used for layering of proceeds of crime and Nitin Bhatnagar was actively involved in layering of these proceeds of crime for main accused Ratul Puri, the promoter of Moser Baer.
ED had earlier arrested main accused Ratul Puri in 2019. During investigation Rajiv Saxena, the hawala operator and Rajiv Aggarwal, a close associate of Ratul Puri, were arrested in 2021 and prosecution complaints have been already filed against these accused persons. Property amounting to $47.95 million has been already attached in this case.
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